Lent: Lengthening of Days

Posted Friday, February 23, 2018, at 9:47 PM

As a commuter I do a lot of driving in the dark of early morning. It’s a little scary, to be honest, because I cannot see what is off to the sides. If the deer that I will inevitably meet comes up then we will just have to battle it out: Car vs. Deer! I will probably lose that battle. I’ve been hit by a deer before.

Notice I said that “I” have been hit. I did not say that I hit the deer, no the deer hit me. I remember being on a fairly busy street and all of a sudden a herd of deer ran in front of me. Except the last guy. He ran straight into my front fender, did a lot of damage, and lost his life off to the side of the road. The state police have a list of hunters who will come and take a carcass away. I blamed the deer, he should have stopped and waited at the side of the road like everybody else.

So as I drive the great darkness of the state of Indiana I find great comfort in using my high beams, or bright lights. They light up the sides of the road and I can see more clearly and when deer enter my line of sight, I know I can slow down. “Bright lights” really help me do my driving.

I’ve noticed over the last year or so that a lot of trucks and large type SUV’s have front lights that are just as bright as my bright lights! And when I “flick” mine at them to let them know I’d like them to turn off the bright lights they flick back telling me they have the superior car and do not even have bright lights on! It is especially annoying when such a vehicle is behind my car and lights up my interior! I feel like one of those space invader movies and hope I am not taken up to the spaceship! So I adjust my rear view mirror and wait for a safe place to pull over and let them pass.

Well, we have entered the season of darkness, leading to Light. We call the season of the 40 days before Easter, Lent! In the Latin language it means “spring, or the lengthening” of days. We walk through this darkness and the darkness of Good Friday, heading to the Light of Easter. That light has shone out onto all the world and lights up our path day by day.

Before I entered Seminary a friend of mine gave me a note where he wrote: “I think of a sunset across a lake, with the bright beam of reflected light creating a path to the sun. Washed in the light of our creator, light that is brighter than 10,000 suns, and a path that is as straight with no end in sight.” We walk this path together, with light from our creator, even in the darkness of Lent or early morning, God is Light.